Kanban Board

The Kanban Board app provides teams with the option of managing pull-based, lean software development projects. The Kanban Board allows the user to trigger an update to the Schedule State field for any drag-and-drop action from one column to another column. Using the Schedule State field enables a shared view of work in CA Agile Central regardless of the methodology that each team practices because many pages in CA Agile Central (such as Release Status) show status and rollups based on the Schedule State field.

Product backlog, time-boxed iterations, and estimation are unnecessary when using a Kanban system since work is pulled into the board and the queue is the only work of interest. Achieving maximum throughput is the main goal by determining bottlenecks in the system and limiting the work in progress to reduce task context switching and ensure work is completed efficiently and quickly.

Set Up the Kanban Board

Settings in this app are per project. Project administrators may only change app settings in projects they administer.

Follow these steps:

From the app gear menu, select Settings.

You can set the board to change its data with your global project picker, or you can choose a specific project or group of projects to work from. If you choose the Follow Global Project Setting, then the contents of the board will change according to your global project picker. Select Choose Specific Project if you want to see another project's work, regardless of your global project setting.

If your board is installed on a shared custom page, check the Default Settings check box to use the settings selected in the lower section of the menu for all projects in the workspace. Changes you make to columns, fields displayed on cards, and other options will be used when viewing the board from any project.

Note:

If you have previously saved settings for the app while viewing it from a specific project, those settings will not be overwritten when checking the Default Settings check box. Any changes you save while this check box is empty will be project-specific.

When the app resides on a custom page shared with an entire workspace, only workspace administrators and subscription administrators may edit global settings.

The Kanban Board's columns are determined based on a CA Agile Central field. You can use Schedule State, but most Kanban teams will want to use a custom field to define customized columns. You can use different values for different projects (teams).

As a workspace administrator, create a custom field of type Dropdown in CA Agile Central with a Name and Display Name of your choosing (such as KanbanState). Spaces are allowed in the Name and Display Name, but special characters are not supported.

Add values to the custom drop-down for each Kanban state. For example, Prioritized, Ready, In Dev, Released, and so on. Create this custom field for each work item type that will be displayed on the board, so that stories, defects, and test cases may share the same custom state.

Select the custom field you've created from the Columns drop-down. A table will display below the field.

Each value of your field will be listed as a row. For each row:

Edit the Show column to determine if that value appears on the board.

Use the Schedule State Mapping option to associate values between the custom field and the Schedule State field. We recommend mapping the In-Progress and Accepted values of the Schedule State field to columns displayed on your board. These values are used to generate Cycle Time and Throughput charts. Both charts measure stories that move from In-Progress to Accepted. You can edit these settings inline by double-clicking in the table.

The WIP value for each row in the table represents a work in progress limit for each column on the board. This value is the maximum number of cards that the team agrees should be in a column at any given time. When this limit is exceeded, the column will turn red. Leave the field blank for unlimited WIP.

Field values are listed in the same order that was set when the custom field was created or modified. Selecting a column name in the table will sort the fields by the specified criteria. To change the order of the values, edit the custom field.

Swimlanes are horizontal rows that can be applied to a board for a team to easily visualize work items by category or sub-process. Administrators can choose custom fields to be used as swimlanes on the Kanban Board.

Best Practice: The most common usage in kanban is to add an Expedite swimlane. You can use this swimlane to visualize a single work item that is allowed to violate work in progress (WIP) limits. This work item receives priority treatment over other work items in a column.

Select the Swimlanes checkbox.

Select the type of swimlane you want to set up from the dropdown menu.

Blocked: Work items that are blocked can be manually blocked or dragged into the swimlane.

Expedite: Cards designated as urgent can be dragged into the swimlane and tracked. The Expedite field is available on all artifact work items (use story, defect, portfolio item, test set and defect suite).

Owner: Create owner swimlanes to easily drag work items that should be assigned to a specific owner.

Sizing: Sizing points are used to easily drag work items into a specific size grouping.

Custom: Administrators can create custom dropdown fields to create swimlanes. Custom dropdown fields can be created at the workspace or project level to make swimlanes available to all users of a workspace or project. A custom field must be created for both user stories and defects.

No Entry: For work items that include the swimlane field but the field has not been set to a value, those work items will display in a swimlane named No Entry.

Set up display options to determine whether a card displays on the board.

Select the Hide cards in last visible column if assigned to a release checkbox to make cards disappear from the right-most column on the board when a value is added to the work item Release field.

Select the Show age for card after day(s) in column if you want to see a visual indicator on a card after the limit is exceeded. You can change the maximum number of days as desired.

Use the Query field to display a select set of work items. You can enter SQL-style queries to filter the cards displayed on the board, based on field values of stories and defects. Learn more.

Use Cards

User stories and defects are displayed on the board as cards.

The card on the board is what is most important during the stand-up meeting. Track the work and not the worker each day.

Ensure the team always prioritizes moving cards on the right side of the board before moving cards on the left side of the board. The cards on the right are the most important to complete first as this work is closest to delivering customer value.

Ensure most cards on the board are about the same size or estimate. This helps provide the greatest benefit to the cycle time report data. If your sizing is varied, the cycle time report is not as meaningful.

You can update all work items, including tasks, without leaving the Kanban board.

Filter Cards

You can filter cards on the page by many different values. Select the filter icon and select the desired field name, operator and value from the dropdown lists. Select Apply to save your changes. You can also Clear all filter values or Cancel if needed. To add more than three filters to the board, select Add New. Learn more.

Select Fields to Display On Cards

Select one or more fields to display on the Kanban Board. Specify which fields are displayed by selecting the Show on Cards icon on the app, located next to the + Add New button.

Update States

Each card resides in a column according to its Schedule State field or custom field value. When work begins, cards are moved to the right.

To update the state of a card:

Drag the card into the appropriate column. If the work item has tasks associated with it, the card moves to a column automatically after updating the state of a task.

Move Existing Work to the Kanban Board

If you are not seeing work items from your backlog after setting up the Kanban board, use one of the methods below:

Assign defects and stories to the first Kanban state visible on your board. Set up a custom view with the Kanban State custom field displayed from the Plan, Backlog page. You can then double-click on the Kanban State custom field for each story or defect to set the Kanban state.

Another option is to assign work to the first Kanban state by displaying the --No Entry-- column on the board. The board will limit the work in this column to the first 100 cards.

Move Between Swimlanes

Cards can be moved across swimlanes via drag-and-drop. Additionally, you can collapse a swimlane by selecting the arrow icon on the right side of the swimlane header.

Add New Cards

You can add a new user story or defect to the board with the Add New button. You can either do a quick add or add with details.

Quick Add

:

Add with Details

Edit Details

You can edit the Name, Plan Estimate, and Owner fields inline (select once on the field on the card). Note that you can only inline edit the Plan Estimate if it is selected to be displayed on cards via Settings. Enter or select the new field value, then press Enter to save your changes. You can also select outside of the card area to save. Press Esc to cancel any changes.

To edit additional fields, select the gear icon and select Edit. Make your changes in the editor window.

Mark Cards as Blocked or Ready-to-pull

If you cannot work on a card, or a task associated with a card, you can mark it as blocked to notify your team of a problem. Blocked cards display on the board with a red border. Hover over a card and select the stop sign icon to set the blocked status.

After the stop sign icon is selected, the Blocked Reason field displays. Type the reason for the blocked status, then select outside of the card to save. You can edit the Blocked Reason by selectinging the field on the card. When a blocked status is removed, the Blocked Reason field is cleared out.

When a card is ready to move to the next stage of development, you can mark it as ready-to-pull to update your product owner or other team members. The card displays on the board with a green border. Hover over a card and select the checkmark icon to set ready-to-pull status.

If you check the Blocked field when using the task editor window, the blocked status will roll up to the associated work item. The card for that work item will display the red border.

Choose a Color for Cards

Use the color picker icon to change the top border of the card. This icon is located by hovering on the bottom of the card.

Rank Cards

Adjust the vertical position of a card by dragging it up or down within a column. This is helpful if your team has many work items within a given state, and you want to visually remind them which items are high priority. At the beginning of an iteration, you can use this feature to identify what work is most important to begin first.

Copy or Delete Cards

You may copy or delete a work item by hovering over a card and selecting the gear icon.

Select Copy to create a copy of the work item and any associated tasks. This feature is useful during iteration planning, when you need to create a similar story, defect, or a template set of tasks.

Select Delete to immediately remove the work item from the board and move it to the Recycle Bin.

View and Update Discussions

You can review and add discussions for each card on the board. Discussions allow team members to provide detailed updates and comments on a work item.

To update discussions for a card:

Hover over a card, select the plus icon and select Discussion.

Enter your new comment in the text field and select Reply.

If the work item already has discussion comments present, select the icon on the card to access the details display.

To delete a comment, select the trashcan icon when viewing the details display. Only the original author and administrators may delete a comment.

Select outside of the card or on the arrow icon to close the details display.

An icon will display on each card, indicating the number of comments present. The icon will change color depending on the time the last comment was posted. A discussion with a post less than four hours old displays as dark blue, while older posts display as a lighter blue or grey, so you can see which work items have new information.

View and Update Tasks

You can quickly view the overall status of associated tasks on each card. If tasks are associated to a work item, an icon and a count of completed tasks display at the bottom of the card. An aggregate total of the remaining task to do hours will display to the right of the icon.

Task Status Icons

Add the task status column to your Backlog page to see the state of tasks associated to your user story or defect. When displayed, the column will have a colored icon indicating the status of the associated items.

You can enter new data into text and number fields, or use a drop-down menu to change multiple value fields.

After making changes:

Press Enter to save your changes and edit the next field down.

Press Tab to save your changes and edit the next field to the right.

Select outside of the tasks area to save changes to a field.

Press Esc to cancel any pending changes.

To edit additional fields, select the gear icon next to a task and select Edit.

To exit the task details display, select the arrow icon or outside of the area.

Add New Tasks

You can quickly create a new task associated to a work item with the Add New button in the task details display.

Quick Add

Add with Details

Copy or Delete Tasks

Use the gear icon in the task details display to copy or delete a task.

Select Copy to create a copy of the task. This is useful during iteration planning when you need to create a similar set of tasks associated to a work item.

Select Delete to immediately disassociate the task from the work item and move it to the Recycle Bin.

View and Update Associated Defects

You can quickly view the overall status of defects associated to a user story. If defects are associated to a story, an icon and a count of active defects display at the bottom of the card.

A red icon indicates that one or more defects with a state other than Closed are associated to the user story. A green icon indicates that one or more defects are associated to the story, but all have a state of Closed. Product owners can quickly scan the icons when updating iteration work—a red icon indicates that open defects exist, and the story cannot be accepted.

Edit Defect Fields

To edit defect fields:

Select the status icon on a card to display a list of all defects associated to the story. Alternatively, select the plus icon when hovering over a card and select Defects.

The following fields display:

Name

Severity

Priority

Owner

State

Select any field to enter inline editing mode. You can type in the Name field or use the drop-down menus to change fields with multiple values.

After making changes:

Press Enter to save your changes and edit the next field down.

Press Tab to save your changes and edit the next field to the right.

Select outside of the tasks area to save changes to a field.

Press Esc to cancel any pending changes.

To edit additional fields, select the gear icon next to a defect and select Edit.

To exit the defect details display, select the arrow icon or outside of the area.

Add New Defects

You can quickly create a new defect associated to a user story with the Add New button in the defect details display. Quickly add a new defect by selecting the Add button, or select Add with Details to open the defect editor.

Copy or Delete Defects

Use the gear icon in the defect details display to copy or delete a defect.

Select Copy to create a copy of the defect associated to the same user story.

Select Delete to immediately disassociate the defect from the story and move it to the Recycle Bin.

Filter by Tag

The Filter by tag drop-down allows you to filter what cards are shown by fading out cards that do not have the selected tag applied. If no cards match the selected tag, all cards are faded and a message displays. When the filter is applied to the board, you can still interact (drag-and-drop, select links, expand cards, and so on) with all cards displayed on the board.

Filter by Owner

Filter cards by selecting an owner from the drop-down. Selecting an owner populates the board with cards belonging exclusively to one person. Select Clear Filter to return the cards to their original state.

Note: If the selected owner is the owner of a defect or task associated to a work item, the related card will display on the board. This includes cards owned by other users.

Exit Agreements

To document what criteria needs to be met before a card can move into the next column, use the exit agreements feature.

By default, the Exit Agreement and Exit Policy fields are hidden from the Kanban Board. To display the fields above each column, select the following checkbox next to the Filter by drop-down menu:

Show Agreements on the Kanban Board

Show Policies on the Portfolio Kanban Board

When the fields are displayed, hover over the column you want to edit. Select Edit to open the editor. Enter your exit criteria, then select Save.

Note:

The fields are independent for each project the Kanban Board is scoped to.

Coaching Corner: Why are Exit Agreements/Policies Important?

The following recommendations for Kanban exit policies were provided by Eric Willeke, a Coach at CA Agile Central. Our coaching organization specializes in agile and lean methodologies, and helps customers tailor their use of CA Agile Central to unique workflows. Review the following with your teams to ensure you create effective agreements/policies when using this feature.

More great advice like this is available to CA Agile Central customers who would like to further enhance their agile and lean processes. For a minimal fee, you can schedule a one hour advising session on the phone. Learn more.

In each column, the policy is the team's commitment to complete a certain list of activities before allowing work to be pulled into the next column. This list typically takes the form of a set of testable statements, such as Code review comments resolved or Installed in staging environment. When observing the board, you can look at a single card's position and be assured that every policy to the left of this card has been met and act safely on that information.

As a result, exit policies answer the question: What does it mean for work to be in this state? These per-column policies help convey clear expectations to stakeholders and anybody else viewing a team's board. This goes a long way to resolving misunderstandings between the team and their stakeholders, creating a stronger, more trusting relationship.

Using exit policies as a checklist allows individuals to focus on leveraging their skills to achieve the product's goals, and reduces the stress factor of having to remember each aspect of the team's commitment. This is also helpful to new team members as they learn the team's behaviors and norms.

Available Actions

Column Actions

Action

What it does

Drag-and-drop to another column

Hover over the card to see the cross-hair cursor that allows you to drag the card into any of the other columns on the board. The Schedule State field is updated when a card is moved from one column to the next.

Drag-and-drop re-ranking

Hover over the card to see the cross-hair cursor that allows you to re-rank cards within the same column or re-rank by drag-and-drop from one column to the next.
The card that you re-rank will always be re-ranked to a position higher than the card beneath it. For example, if you move S456 above S123, it will set the rank of US456 higher than the rank for US123.

App Tools Actions

Action

What it does

Settings

Configure the Kanban Board for the current project selected in the Project chooser.

Show Cycle Time Report

Display the average cycle time (in days) for defects and stories for the last 12 months.
This helps determine how long it takes to get a story or defect from the In-Progress to Accepted schedule state. For example, as soon as a story gets a Kanban state and has a schedule state of In-Progress, it will start tracking the cycle time. Once the story reaches the Accepted schedule state, the cycle time is displayed in the cycle time report. Since the cycle time metrics track data on the Schedule State field, it is important to set this mapping correctly in the Settings dialog.

Show Throughput Report

Display the throughput (count of work items) for defects or stories for the last 12 months.
This helps determine how often a story or defect goes from the In-Progress to Accepted schedule state. For example, as soon as a story gets a Kanban state and has a schedule state of In-Progress, it will start tracking the throughput. Once the story reaches the Accepted schedule state, this work item is included in the throughput report. Since the throughput metrics track data on the Schedule State field, it is important to set this mapping correctly in the Settings dialog.

Print

Print the entire Kanban Board including header and page options.

Delete App

Delete the Kanban Board.

Card Actions

Action

What it does

View the details of the work item

The FormattedID link on the card title (such as DE7018) is a URL that will take you to the detail page for the work item.

Edit card details

Displays a full editor window for the work item. Hover over the card, then select the gear icon and select Edit.

Mark a card as ready

Highlights the card with a green border, indicating work is ready to be reviewed or moved to the next stage. Hover over a card, and then select the stop check icon at the bottom to mark it ready. Use this same method to remove a ready status. The Ready checkbox inside of the user story or defect will be edited when performing this function.

Block a card

Highlights the card with a red border, indicating work is stalled. Hover over a card, and then select the stop sign icon at the bottom to mark it blocked. Use this same method to remove a blocked status.

Change the name of a card

Select the name in the center of the card to enter inline editing mode. Type in the new name, then select outside of the field.

Change the owner of a card

Select the owner icon (to the immediate right of the owner name near the top of the card) to enter inline editing mode. Use the drop-down to select a new owner, then select outside of the card to exit edit mode.

Copy a card

Creates a copy of the work item, and copies any associated tasks. Hover over the card, then select the gear icon and select Copy.

Delete a card

Removes the work item from the board and places it in the Recycle Bin. Hover over the card, then select the gear icon and select Delete.

Review and add discussions

Read or add comments to the work item. Hover over the card, then select the plus icon and select Discussion.

Task Actions

Action

What it does

View overall task status

The status of task progress and total remaining to do hours will display at the bottom of each card. Task progress is represented by an icon.

View all tasks with details

Displays a list of all associated tasks and essential fields. Select the task summary icon at the bottom of a card, or hover over a card, select the plus icon, and select Tasks.

Edit task details inline

You can update the task Schedule State, Name, Owner, Estimate, and To Do fields from the task details display. Select a field to enable inline editing mode, then enter your changes. Text and number fields will have an entry form, while multi-select fields will display a drop-down. Select outside of the card area or press Enter to save your changes.

Open full task editor

Displays an editor window to change any standard or custom task field. From the task details display, select the gear icon to the left of the task, and then select Edit.

Copy a task

Creates a copy of the task and associates it with the same work item. From the task details display, select the gear icon to the left of the task, and then select Copy.

Delete a task

Disassociates the task from the work item and places it in the Recycle Bin. From the task details display, select the gear icon to the left of the task, and then select Delete.

Rank a task

You can change the order that tasks display when viewing the details of a card. In the task details display, select the gripper icons to the left of a task row and drag the task to its new position.

Associated Defect Actions

Action

What it does

View overall defect status

The status of associated defects at the bottom of user story cards. An icon will display based on the number of defects associated to the story, and indicates if all defects have been closed.

View all associated defects with details

Displays a list of all associated defects and essential fields. Select the defect summary icon at the bottom of a card, or hover over a card, select the plus icon, and select Defects.

Edit defect details inline

You can update the defect State, Name, Owner, Severity, and Priority fields from the defect details display. Select a field to enable inline editing mode, then enter your changes. Text fields will have an entry form, while multi-select fields will display a drop-down. Select outside of the card area or press Enter to save your changes.

Open full defect editor

Displays an editor window to change any standard or custom defect field. From the defect details display, select the gear icon to the left of the defect, and then select Edit.

Copy a defect

Creates a copy of the defect and associates it with the same user story. From the defect details display, select the gear icon to the left of the task, and then select Copy.

Delete a defect

Disassociates the defect from the user story and places it in the Recycle Bin. From the defect details display, select the gear icon to the left of the defect, and then select Delete.

Rank a task

You can change the order that defects display when viewing the details of a card. In the defect details display, select the gripper icons to the left of a defect row and drag the defect to its new position.